Toronto Real Estate and Neighbourhoods Blog | Move Smartly

Trinity Bellwoods

Jesse Fleming in Toronto Neighbourhoods   

A friend of mine named her dog after it.  Former Sault St. Marie band Treble Charger wrote a song about it.  The neighbourhood of Trinity Bellwoods seems to leave an imprint on those who reside and spend their leisure time within its borders (check out Realosophy’s neighbourhood profile for housing and school stats).  One fine day I decided to visit the area that Toronto Life referred to as “the epicentre of Toronto cool”, hopped on the 63 Ossington bus and headed into Trinity Bellwoods.

Toronto’s Gallery District runs the stretch of Queen Street West beginning west of Ossington Avenue and continues roughly to Trinity Bellwoods Park.  Art galleries and showrooms, including the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, line this leg of Queen West; the MOCCA is situated beside Robert Burley’s impressive building-side mural.  The city’s Fashion District continues along the eastern leg of Queen West, up to and beyond Bathurst Street, Trinity Bellwoods’ eastern boundary.  Independent restaurants and cafes, along with varied retail amenities, dapple Queen West; however, I could not resist the siren song of Starbucks at the corner of Claremont and Queen.

Dufferin Grove

Jesse Fleming in Toronto Neighbourhoods

My favourite Toronto housing style has always been, what I call, the ‘downtown house.’  They are numerous within Dufferin Grove (check out Realosophy's Dufferin Grove profile for local school and housing stats), as well as many other older Toronto neighbourhoods, and I never grow tired of admiring them.  These tall, narrow, Victorianesque three-storied houses can be found in semi-detached and fully-detached models; some have steep peaked roofs and others sport flattened tops.  I had an internal squeal of delight when walking amongst these neighbourhood streets lined with vespa-occupied driveways and chocolaty scents wafting from the Nestle Food Group, just west of Dufferin Street - it was complete and utter sensory overload.

Along Dufferin Grove’s borders of Bloor Street West, Dundas Street West, Ossington Avenue and Dufferin Street, a portion of this neighbourhood’s apartments can be found in the form of high-rise buildings and units located above retail stores - Juliet balconies pepper the outsides of these otherwise discreet abodes.  Within the neighbourhood, many larger houses have been subdivided and rented as individual apartments varying in size.  The Church Lofts located at Dovercourt Road and Bloor Street West are currently under construction.

Letting it All Hang Out: Ontario's Clothesline Ban Lifted....Finally

Jesse Fleming in Urban Issues

“There is a whole generation of kids growing up today who think a clothesline is a wrestling move,” Premier McGuinty quipped during his announcement that Ontario’s residents are free to use clotheslines, overriding restrictions, especially in newer developments, that stipulate otherwise.  As I had promised in a previous post, I have been keeping an eye out for this news which came just in time for Ontarians to take advantage of the first glorious weekend of 2008 and the apparent transition from winter directly into summer, skipping the minor detail that is spring.  Mother Nature sure is a fickle one.

Reiterating what I had mentioned before, clotheslines not only prolong the life of your dryer but also reduce your energy bills - the dryer is one of the highest energy users in a home, playing second fiddle only to the refrigerator.  For those who do not have a clothesline, Toronto Hydro-Electric System is giving them away for free at select Toronto retail locations throughout late-April and early-May.  A free clothesline and utility bill savings is really a win-win situation.

This step in the environmentally right direction pertains only to semi and fully detached homes and townhouses.  I had my fingers crossed that the clothesline allowance would be inclusive towards apartment and condominiums, depending on their layout, but no such luck.  For now, I have to remain content in my alternative methods of energy reduction.

Jesse Fleming is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Email Jesse

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Ledbury Park

Jesse Fleming in Toronto Neighbourhoods

Similar to any older Toronto neighbourhood, the trend of knocking down post-war homes (usually bungalows) and building grander, modernized abodes in their stead is prevalent on any street throughout Ledbury Park (check out Realosophy's Ledbury Park Neighbourhood Profile for local school and housing stats).  Notable is the evidence that, despite the bungalow being added to Ledbury Park's endangered species list, dappled in between new and ongoing construction are reminders and variations of these 1950s favourites that once dominated the entire area. 

Lawrence Manor

Jesse in Toronto Neighbourhoods

This past weekend, Toronto was home to the Canadian National Scrabble Championship.  As I am an avid player of the crossword-themed game, I could not help but contrast it to the neighbourhood of Lawrence Manor (check out Realosophy’s Neighbourhood Profile for local housing and school stats). 

Within the southern portion of this particular community, residential streets form concentric circles around Prince Charles Park - the antithesis of its northern counterpart which resembles the gridded pattern of a Scrabble board.

Lawrence Park

Jesse in Toronto Neighbourhoods

“Four hundred feet above Lake Ontario and far from the lake winds in winter” was the original advertisement for the neighbourhood of Lawrence Park (check out Realosophy’s Lawrence Park Neighbourhood Profile for local school and housing stats).  Situated around Lawrence Park and Blythwood ravines, the maze-like looping streets weave to and from Yonge Street, Bayview Avenue and Lawrence Avenue East - the major arteries that feed into this community.

For those who drive, Lawrence Park is close to highway 401 and its intersection with the Don Valley Parkway/Highway 404.  Lawrence station is the only subway stop in the neighbourhood; however, TTC buses running along Yonge Street, Bayview Avenue, Mount Pleasant Road and Lawrence Avenue East provide Torontonians with an alternative mode of transportation.   

Humewood-Cedarvale

Jesse in Toronto Neighbourhoods

The neighbourhood of Humewood-Cedarvale is a result of the amalgamation of the former communities of Humewood and Cedarvale (check out Realosophy’s neighbourhood profile for local school and housing stats). 

Sir Henry Mill Pellat, the brains behind Casa Loma, desired to build an exclusive, gated subdivision that was to be crowned “Cedarvale”.  As history tells us, Sir Pellat went bankrupt following World War One which prevented both of his dreams from coming to fruition.  Iron gates located at the corner of Bathurst Street and Claxton Boulevard indicate the original entrance to Sir Pellat’s Cedarvale, and remind Torontonians of what might have been.  William Hume Blake, the first professor of civil and common law in Toronto, owned land in what is now the southwest corner of this neighbourhood.  His estate had been known as “Humewood.”

Lytton Park

Jesse in Toronto Neighbourhoods

Incorporated into the City of Toronto in 1912, the neighbourhood of Lytton Park hit its construction peak between 1946 and 1960 (check out Realosophy’s Lytton Park neighbourhood profile for local school and housing stats).  Today, with the advent of the Lytton Park Resident’s Organization, this community retains its status as one of Toronto’s oldest and most established areas.

Straddling Avenue Road and bounded on the east by Yonge Street, these two arteries offer easy travel into and out of the downtown core.  Buses, including the 5 Avenue Road, 14 Glencairn Avenue, 97 Yonge Street and 52 Lawrence Avenue West, shuttle passengers to and from surrounding subway stations, creating an alternate mode of transportation should residents want to leave the car at home. 

Caribou Park

Jesse in Toronto Neighbourhoods

Joining Allenby and Corso Italia is yet another of Toronto’s smaller areas, the neighbourhood of Caribou Park (check out Realosophy’s Neighbourhood Profile for stats in housing and schools).  Hidden within larger neighbourhoods, Caribou Park is contained within the borders of Lytton Park, Glen Park and Ledbury Park.  On land that once was part of the Snider Family Farm (circ. 1800s), Caribou Park is now almost exclusively residential.

As with many large tracts of land that were held within Toronto’s city limits, the Snider Farm changed hands and was sold to developers by the 1940s who continued building until the 1960s. A mix of two-storied homes and bungalows were built along streets with names such as Coldstream Avenue, Otter Crescent and Caribou Road which bisects the neighbourhood; a few low-rise buildings are located along Lawrence Avenue West. Caribou Park homes are reminiscent of the styles and designs that can be found on Toronto Island - where the variety of finishes and facade choices differ from house to house, they all manage to add to the consistency of the area.  As with any neighbourhood, there are clusters of houses that were built with the same floor plans (this is assumption, I have only seen the outside) but HomeOwners have added touches here and there so no two homes are really alike.

 

Taking Neighbourly Troubles Online

Jesse in Urban Issues

Have you returned those hedge clippers yet?  If not, you could be on the internet - Rottenneighbor.com is a website that encourages people to air their neighbourly grievances.  Touting themselves as “the first real estate search engine of its kind,” it allows Home Buyers, Home Owners and renters alike to search for both good neighbours (indicated by green houses) and unsavoury ones (indicated by red houses) living in cities throughout the world - provided that someone has complemented/complained about them.

Equating this to a piece of juicy neighbour gossip, I can definitely see the entertainment potential from such an amenity.  Whether it helps the home buying process is a different story.